The present invention relates to power-winding equipment for pulling and loading turns of a rope or cable onto a "capstan". More particularly, the invention relates to improved guide devices assuring that the rope or cable is fed onto the rotating capstan surface for orderly winding of adjacent turns.
As described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,819,912, a helically ramped guide device has been developed for mounting on the power winding equipment which feeds the rope onto the rotating capstan to promote orderly winding of the rope thereon. The helical ramp device has an attached guide arm and both the guide arm and the helical lamp are free to rotate so as to allow self-adjusting angular feed and guidance of the rope along the helical ramp onto the capstan to produce orderly winding. In use of the freely rotating helical ramp and arm, however, certain operational problems can occur when the sufficiently large sliding friction of the rope passing along the ramp surface overcomes the static friction between the backside of the ramp and the stationary frame on which the helical guide ramp is mounted resulting in the helical ramp and arm actually rotating with the capstan, thus eliminating any rope feed guidance onto the capstan. When the helical ramp continues to rotate unchecked, the guide arm can strike a fixed object such as the frame of the power capstan drive unit. These and other disadvantages are eliminated by the improved guide unit in accordance with the present invention.